If you are in the mood for some headache-inducing headbanging sound, known today by the completely real and not made-up cross-genre tag of Dark Nü Metal, then Tetrarch is the band for you. Constantly exhaustive with their boosted drum kit, the noise of their new album, The Ugly Side of Me, is undeniably destroying the airwaves with the sound of noisy disruption.
Tetrarch began in the Dirty South, playing over one hundred shows around the North Georgia area during their debut year of 2007. All this before their first official EP title Pravda dropped in 2008 and garnered them some much-needed attention in the scene. Playing with a badge of honor, they quickly developed a fan base to enable an East Coast tour and sign to a label. However, the band did not release a full-length album until a decade later, when they self-published Freak in 2017 and then Unstable in 2021, which started their tenure with Napalm Records.
Currently under Napalm Records, the band is clinging to some European appeal, which is corroborated by their upcoming tour dates. A good number of German venues, followed by a sprinkling of spots across the rest of mainland Europe and the UK. This is not very surprising, the Metalcore sound is constantly bumping in the Industrial clubs and slums of Germany, Russia, the UK, and Switzerland. While it may be hard to get mainstream US appeal, taking advantage of the European fanbase is the proper move for this quartet of moshers.
Released on May 9, 2025, let us split The Ugly Side of Me down the middle and speak on one shining pearl and one dirty drop at a time. Starting positively, the band has a powerful rhythm that does not let up until the album’s end. The drums are consistent and help propel the lyrics and movements forward, especially when the vocalist, Josh Fore, decides to slow down the pacing and wax poetic in his macabre lyrical way. The mix between these consistent, fast-paced drums of Ruben Limas and Guitarist Diamond Rowe’s chord progressions builds songs with no negative space, always speeding to a resolution within the crunchy void of bass feedback and reverb.
Take “Headspace,” for example; its breakdown at around the two-minute mark is still filled with echoed noise, and the lyrics help to keep a fast pace despite the drums dropping off. This speed is a sound much deeper, Industrial, and dark than the spastic attacks of Thrash or Death Metal, the band is not showing off some speed-based techniques, instead just controlling the narrative of their album by keeping the listener constantly on the verge of new sound.
Now for the not-so-great part…most of the songs begin to blend. This can become a big problem for an album that clocks in only thirty minutes. This is closer to an EP of a specific sound than a fully polished and expanded album. There is not a lot of experimentation, and The Ugly Side of Me could be written off as filler for the catalog of music released by Tetrarch. Could this be an aftereffect of the genre? Metalcore like this is hard to distinguish because it relies on hard-hitting, high-energy guitar and drums to drown the listener in sound. This could be the case, but the introduction to some of these songs and the bridge for those like “Live Not Fantasize” and “The Only Thing I Got” stand out from the rest of the track, and honestly the whole album, as exceptional soundbites that are forced to pull the weight here.
The Ugly Side of Me is another Heavy Metal release, yet it feels common. It has no standout tracks that make it memorable, and its short play time left us wanting more from the band, which has been playing for almost two decades and is selling tickets for venues in Germany, one of the hearts of the Contemporary Metal scene. All matters taken into consideration, Cryptic Rock gives Tetrarch’s The Ugly Side of Me 3 out of 5 stars.
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